


The Trash Man

by InterstellarVagabond



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: AU, Game 1 canon au, Gen, Mild Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:08:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25081381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterstellarVagabond/pseuds/InterstellarVagabond
Summary: Makoto is saved at the last minute by Alter Ego, but finds himself trapped in the trash room beneath Hope's Peak. What's worse, he soon realizes that he's not alone.One remnant of despair in particular has been hard at work making the executions that killed Makoto's friends, and where else would he get his spare parts if not a junkyard like this?
Comments: 7
Kudos: 93





	The Trash Man

**Author's Note:**

> I was just talking a lot with a friend about Kaz living at Hope's Peak during all of this and how he probably skulked around in the garbage, and how Mikan probably hung around every once in awhile and Junko decided to make her useful by making her go tell Kaz to be useful lmao

Makoto woke and…

He was alive.

He was alive!

He was also… lying in a massive pile of garbage, presumably the only thing that had broken his fall and turned his failed execution into simply an unconventional execution. 

“Ugh…” he untangled himself from the pile, thinking hard about the trial and what had happened with Kyoko. When he finally felt calm enough to focus on something besides that he switched gears from emotion to survival.

The trash room was enormous, filled with hundreds of different items, but it appeared like there was no food or water that he could possibly force himself to choke down. 

“It’s all rotten…” he sighed, tossing aside a mold covered piece of bread. 

“Not all of it.”

“Huh?” Makoto jumped, startled by a voice that wasn’t his. He’d figured he was alone down here. “H-hello?”

He heard the sound of trash shifting and jumped back as a figure emerged from the trash pile next to him. 

It was a man, tall and pale and filthy from head to toe, like he’d been living here for awhile now which is what Makoto guessed. He was wearing goggles over his eyes, a baggy jumpsuit decorated with splashes of neon paint and (less attractively so) bits of the pile he’d just emerged from, but what really caught Makoto’s eyes was the shock of bright pink hair with brown roots, and the sharp teeth currently biting into a candy bar. 

“M’just saying, you didn’t even try looking, dude.” the stranger snickered, apparently not interested in sharing his food, only in mocking Makoto for not finding it first. 

“W-who are you?” Makoto stammered, and the stranger seemed to startle like he hadn’t realize he was talking to someone. 

Which was entirely the case, because Kazuichi had been on his own for longer than he could keep track of, and was plenty used to talking to people who weren’t there. Usually they didn’t talk back, unless he was seriously hallucinating which hadn’t happened in awhile. 

He lifted his goggles and looked Makoto up and down with wide eyes, before grabbing his arm and pinching at it to make sure there was a real flesh and blood human being in front of him.

“Ow! Hey!” Makoto pulled his arm away.

“Shit!” Kazuichi stumbled backwards, thrusting his hand into a trash pile and grabbing a metal pipe with all the ease of someone who knew exactly where everything was in this wasteland of chaos and garbage. “What the hell are you doing down here?”

“I-I got executed, I don’t know…” Makoto said helplessly. “My friend helped save me, so I ended up here instead of…” he grimaced, thinking about the alternative. 

“You sure as hell don’t look like a blackened.” Kazuichi grabbed his face in one hand, twisting it this way and that as he studied it. “Wait! Oooh… you’re the trash compactor guy! With the desk and the conveyor belt and… well, not one of my best, but it was short notice and totally vague…”

“W-wait, what are you saying?” Makoto pulled away from his grasp. “Did you… did you execute me?”

“Technically? Nah.” Kazuichi fidgeted with the pipe. “But I made it. That and all the other gorgeous machines the mastermind asks for.” he laughed in a way that made Makoto feel sick, and was practically drooling as he talked about  _ designing executions _ .

“You work for the mastermind?” Makoto asked. “T-then I guess you’re not about to help me get out of here, huh?”

“Nope, sorry, pal.” Kazuichi hefted the pipe. “Actually, I think I kinda gotta kill ya? No hard feelings.”

“W-wait!” Makoto backed up as Kazuichi approached with the pipe at the ready. “Y-you can’t just kill me here! I… I…” he struggled to find a way out of this as he tripped over the trash and fell back. His eyes fell on what appeared to be some kind of rocket, with that… damn bear’s face on it. “I wanna know what that is!” he said desperately, pointing over to it. “Y-you made it, right? What’s that?”

Kazuichi paused and slowly lowered the pipe. For a second Makoto thought it wasn’t going to work.

Then Kazuichi grinned brightly, his hand hovering in front of his mouth.

“Do you like it?” he asked excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to build a rocket! I just… I…” his voice trailed off and for a moment that sick look in his eyes faded away.

… and was replaced by… tears?

“I never thought it would be like this…” Kazuichi said softly. “... still, it worked. And it’s real fun to take apart and put back together…”

“You like machines?” Makoto pressed, figuring if he kept him talking he wouldn’t remember he was trying to kill him.

“Course I do!” Kazuichi huffed. “I’m the ultimate mechanic! Kazuichi Soda, nice to meet ya.”

“The ultimate…? You’re a student?” Makoto asked.

“Used to be, I sorta graduated… in a way… heh.” he shrugged. “You’re the lucky one, right? Lot more calm than the one in my class…”

“Wait, hold on, this is a lot of information…” Makoto said, but once he saw Kazuichi’s hand tighten on the pipe he changed the topic again. “S-so you build things, that’s cool. Tell me about that!”

“That trick’s only gonna work once, man,” Kazuichi said, sharp teeth bared. “Look, I’m only gonna enjoy this a little if that helps. The despair of ending a life… it doesn’t do much compared to the despair of living alone in this place forever. You guys can’t kill each other faster? Huh? Think of someone besides yourself once in awhile! I don’t get to leave until all of you do!”

“You could leave with me!” Makoto offered. “I just need your help to get out, and then we could both escape together!”

Just like before Makoto saw the wild look in Kazuichi’s eyes fade to be replaced by genuine emotion. 

“Ugh… you’re killing me, man…” he sighed, the pipe sliding from his hand. “I haven’t felt like this in forever… it’s unfair… don’t make me go back after all the shit I’ve done…” he sniffled and wiped at his eyes. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about… but I know that there’s probably still a chance for you,” Makoto said. “There’s gotta still be hope for you, right? Tell me more about that rocket!”

“... it doesn’t really matter now…” Kazuichi sighed. “Look just… you stay on your side of the trash and I’ll stay on mine, you’ll starve to death eventually and then I don’t gotta worry about ya.”

Makoto watched, still shocked and confused as Kazuichi pulled his goggles back down and headed off into the room. 

  
  


He didn’t really feel safe sleeping with someone like Kazuichi nearby, but without food and water and with his body recovering from the fever it was hard not to doze off. He woke, finding himself leaned against a trash pile, when he heard the sound of the door opening.

He peeked around the corner, watching as a figure entered the trash room. 

She reminded him of Kazuichi in a way, something about the look in her eyes.

Mikan made a disgusted face as she shook a banana peel off her shoe. “Kazuichi!” she shrieked into the room. 

“ _ What _ ?” came the shouted and frankly annoyed response from across the room.

They met halfway, walking towards each other. Mikan put a hand over her nose to block out the smell, wondering if it was all trash or if it was Kazuichi. 

“I’m here to look for a body,” she said with a happy trill in her voice. 

“Mine?” Kazuichi shrieked with panic, jumping back and throwing up his arms defensively.

“No! Not yet, anyway,” she said. “The one that fell down here yesterday.”

Makoto ducked out of view, heart pounding. 

His head… hurt, like it was thinking thoughts it shouldn’t have access to. It was something about those two, when he looked at them for too long it made his head hurt.

“You’ve lost it, no one fell down here,” Kazuichi lied. 

“She said he did. You’re not calling her a liar, are you?” Mikan asked, her voice somehow both cutesy and dangerous, like a Hello Kitty brand knife.

“Nah, just saying I haven’t seen anything, alright? Feel free to look around though. But… don’t expect her to wanna smooch ya when you get back smelling like all of this!” he batted some trash at her, earning a disgusted look and a scalpel to his throat. 

He giggled, pressing a bit closer so it would draw blood. 

She just growled with irritation and pulled away. “J-just tell me if you find a body!” she insisted, tucking the scalpel back into her pocket. 

And just like that she was gone. 

Makoto peeked around the corner again to look at Kazuichi, wondering why he’d saved him. If he worked for the mastermind, why would he be helping him?

He wasn’t about to go over and ask, not after how dangerous Kazuichi had proven to be. So he just hid himself away again, and waited for… well, whatever was going to happen to him.

Eventually the story resumed, all according to hope’s plan as Kyoko came to rescue him and the final investigation started. Junko sent Mikan, her unwanted visitor to the killing game and willing messenger to the trash man who lived underground, telling him that it was all about to go down.

“She wants the biggest execution ever!” Mikan said, drooling with her knees knocking together as she imagined it. “And she needs it fast! An hour tops!”

“An hour?” Kazuichi asked with dismay. “Do I look like I can do that kinda shit? Damn it! … maybe I can just reuse some of the old ones… and maybe she won’t notice…”


End file.
